Tightwad: a person who does not like to spend or give money.
cheapskate, penny-pincher, scrooge, skinflint, miser
You might be a tightwad if…
You ask the store clerk to bag your groceries in BOTH paper and plastic. That way, you never have to buy garbage bags again.
My mother, she’s been doing this for as long as I can remember.
~Mavis
This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.
lynne says
I have never bought a garbage bag. I used to do it exactly as your mom does, but now, in order to reduce the plastic I throw, I just use a paper bag. I compost everything that can be, and any “wet” garbage goes in an empty 1/2 & 1/2 carton I have sitting next to the sink. Works perfectly! 🙂 LynneinMN
Lori says
I use the plastic bags to line my small garbage can under my sink all the time….I never buy bags….lol
I even use the brown bags for when I fry food. I put one layer of paper towel over it and “drain” the food!
Every penny counts
Anita says
Wow! Your mom is one smart cookie! I never would’ve thought of that. Thanks for the tip. 🙂
Karin C says
I live in BC Canada and in our area very few grocery stores have paper anymore, our local green grocer does and there is a .10 charge per bag. Walmart will be charging for plastic bag starting in February.
Lee Ann says
good idea!
Ellen in Clackamas says
My son went to collage in Eugene Oregon (Go Ducks!) and a couple of the stores he shopped at didn’t even offer bags. They REALLY wanted you to bring your own. If you forgot they charged .10 per bag. Many a time he had no change and ended up carrying the groceries home in his sweatshirt—stretched into a bag shape!
Shannon says
Go Ducks! All stores in Eugene are required by city law to charge for bags. Plastic bags have been banned. It took some getting used to but it has definitely worked in “forcing” us to use re-usable bags.
Susan says
Total Tightwad! Never buy garbage bags. I use the plastic store bags in all my inside cans, and tie them up to toss.
Lesley says
Exactly what I do, after I ask for the food to be bagged like Mavis’s mom does!
Deborah says
Not a tightwad, just frugal! I use bags for all kinds of things. Granted, we do buy the big ones for our trash tote. But for smaller cans we use grocery bags.
Diane says
Been doing this for YEARS. Why would I spend money on MORE plastic – for garbage, yet – and then just have to recycle the plastic bags that so much retail stuff gets bagged in?
Teckla says
It’s been YEARS since I bought plastic bags! Except for the large black leaf bags, then only once every 5 years or so. I have in the past and still have a half dozen rolls of various sizes that are probably 15-20 years old. Will take me at least that long to use them, maybe twice that. I mostly use plastic bags from the grocery store or Walmart. My new apt. complex doesn’t recycle, so I usually carry out 1 bag each day when I pick up the mail whether i need to or not. If my Walmart starts charging for plastic bags, I’ll be quick to make reusable fabric bags. I don’t use paper bags much since I live alone and fry very few things. I do recycle the plastic bags from time to time if too many pile up. It’s a crazy world! Way, way too much packaging for almost everything!
Erin says
This disturbs me a little bit. The whole point is to reduce our need for plastic bags so that eventually they will no longer be made, saving the environment. You may not be buying garbage bags, but you are encouraging the continued production of plastic bags. I take reusable cloth grocery bags and buy garbage bags. Since the garbage bags hold so much more, I ultimately use a lot less plastic (at least I hope it works out that way). At some point I hope to stop buying the garbage bags altogether.
Mavis Butterfield says
Good point. I’ll have to do a little digging and see if I can find out how much plastic is used in a garbage bag vs a small grocery store bag.
jennifer says
This year, one of my goals is to reduce my purchasing of plastics, which seems to be wrapped around everything, padding all packages, etc. We already separate recycling/landfill/compostables into 2 kitchen garbage cans and a counter-top bin. I’ve asked the family to rinse out and let dry any grimy recyclables so we can at least not use plastic bags to line that one garbage can. Two weeks in, so far so good. We just lightly rinse and dry the inside of the garbage can once a week in case. Previously we were just emptying the recyclables into our recycling dumpster and leaving the bag lining the garbage can until it was yucky anyway (then we’d swap it into the landfill can so it would get one last use).
CdnErin says
Another Erin here — I have to agree with the first Erin, BUT I also want to add:
You’re not *really* getting the bags for free. You’re PAYING for those bags as part of your grocery prices! I realize that the USA is different than here — we don’t have double-coupon days, nor can a coupon be redeemed for more than the item is worth, so there is no $0 grocery hauls.
Stores have overhead they have to pay; they have to buy their business supplies, from till-tape to bags, they have to pay business taxes, power, water & maintenance of the store and pay the staff to stock the shelves, and buy the actual stock for the shelves, THEN hopefully make a little bit of money on top of that. Most of Canada’s stores now charge for the single-use plastic bags (ours are 5¢ each at most of the major grocers, including WalMart).
Alison says
I couldn’t do that here – we have to pay for bags in this county. It would defeat the point.
Cari says
Yes! I have probably only bought a few boxes of trash bags in over 15 years. We only use “trash” bags for large project waste, etc. I keep mine inside a plastic wash tub under the sink. If it leaks I can carry the whole thing to the can and rinse the tub. The grocery bags are small, which encourages recycling and keeps the bag from needing to be emptied too often. I save all my bags!
jane says
Here in california using cloth bags here at markets, really saves on home clutter, no plastic in stores and must pay for paper bags, suttle conservation going on, do buy a few plastic garbage bags , but empty them in the dumpster, rinse them when needed and reuse,
jennifer says
LOVE IT
Nicole says
I refuse to buy garbage bags. My family now finds it a luxury if we ever happen to have some. I generally use my re-usable shopping bags or refuse a bag at the store. If I happen to forget or my stash of plastic grocery bags is running low, I don’t feel bad because I re-use them for garbage can liners.
P.S. Target has the best plastic bags because they are slightly larger than the typical grocery bag. However, you can save 5 cents by bringing your own.
Mavis Butterfield says
I totally bring my my own bags to Target so I can get that nickel! 🙂
Lana says
No bags at Aldi unless I buy them but that’s okay for the great prices. But seriously, in our county we are required to bag everything n garbage bags,
Becky says
I love this idea. It kills me to spend money on garbage bags. I buy the cheapest ones possible and then my husband gets livid bc they split or leak. I will try and see if I can get away with this. I’ve asked him to just take our indoor can out and simply flip it into large outdoor can. Then maybe wash out indoor can occasionally. But that idea did not fly whatsoever.
maria lewis says
I have a tall garbage can in my kitchen. I raise poultry, lots of poultry. I use the empty 40 to 50 lb. feed sacks for that can. Also the dog and cat food sacks work great. If the garbage isn’t messy I dump then and reuse them. I may also use the feed sacks to make decorative tote bags this summer. Not tight just frugal.
Erin says
http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Recycling_Plastic_Bags
I’ll be darned! This article actually suggests plastic bags may be a better choice environmentally than paper bags! Who knew!
jennifer says
Perhaps. I think we need to slow our use of both paper and plastic single-use bags. It may save money to get extra freebie bags at the store, and if you gotta save a dime here and there, by all means do so. I think it’s worth the money to buy a decent reusable cloth bag (for groceries) and try to avoid using a bag in the trash can (if that is functional in your region/kitchen/life) at all. I’d bet saving the environment saves us all money in the long run.
Erin says
Agreed. The article, to me, represents a lesser-of-two-evils scenario. I take heavy-weight vinyl bags I purchased years ago to the store and try to never forget them. I don’t know how vinyl breaks down, but I’ve had these for years and it looks like they will last many more years, so I’ll get tons of use out of them before they get discarded. We can’t just dump trash into our outdoor bins because the city requires all refuse to be in bags, even in the big plastic bins. Otherwise, we could go ahead and stop buying the garbage bags. Our only option is to drastically reduce our trash to begin with so we can quit the bags and even the outdoor bins someday. I would love to just dump small cans of tiny amounts of trash at the gas station when I get gas. That is my goal.
Deborah says
My grandparents used to have a paper route, and always had extra papers. She lined her trash cans with the pieces of news paper for a liner. It worked great for her. Now, a lot of people read the paper online. Saves trees. I know when they had outhouses, they used whatever paper they had. At least paper will disintegrate and composte. No so much with plastic. I do believe we should plant a tree for every tree cut down. We had some pines cut when we bought our land. So far we have planted more than was cut down, and I’m not through with the trees I want. I have fruit trees and a pecan tree planted. Still have more I want to plant. Including miniature citrus trees.